It's the second fleet-wide stand-down of the Navy's trainer aircraft fleet since 2022. An F-16 assigned to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, crashed around 11:50 a.m. local time on Tuesday. The incident occurred near Scarborough Shoal, one of two hotly disputed areas where confrontations between the two countries have flared since last year. Attacks on critical infrastructure — food and water delivery, health care services, defense contracting and more — could hamper U.S. military response. Compared to the months prior, the Navy reportedly engaged far fewer Houthi drones and missiles in April. To some observers of the Marine Corps’ modernization plans, aspects of the Houthis' operations in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden sound familiar. The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower has been operating in the Middle Eastern waters of U.S. Central Command since November. After an engine fire destroyed a B-1 Lancer bomber in 2022, the Air Force picked a new "Bone" from its jet graveyard to replace it. The Navy will use the T-54A aircraft to train aviators flying the P-8A Poseidon, E-2D Hawkeye and C-130 Hercules. The U.S. will relocate most of the forces it's deployed in Chad, and the majority of the U.S. personnel assigned to Niger are also expected to depart. By Tara Copp, AP
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